A woman who was visiting her cousin at his Clarksdale home was shot and killed Monday night when two intruders kicked in the front door and started shooting.
The killing was one of six incidents involving guns in Clarksdale within 52 hours of each other.
While police can’t say at this moment that all the shootings are related, they do believe some of the incidents could be tied together.
"I'm sure that it will probably come out in the investigation that somewhere they may possibly be related, but I can't guarantee that," said Vince Ramirez, assistant police chief for the Clarksdale Police Department.
Lakisha McGee, 38, was shot and killed in the shooting at 910 Cheyenne St. at approximately 9:37 p.m. Monday. Police say she was visiting her cousin, 29-year-old Jeremy McGee, who suffered multiple gunshot wounds to his upper body and was taken to the Region One Health Medical Center in Memphis.
Police said at least four children and another adult female were in the residence at the time of the home invasion, but they were not physically injured.
No arrests have been made and police continue to investigate the case. Those with information are asked to call the Clarksdale Police Department at 662-621-8156 or 662-645-1232.
Monday's murder was one of six incidents involving guns in Clarksdale. The others were:
* At 7:28 p.m. Saturday, police responded to an incident at Choctaw Street where a person was shot at, but not hit.
* At 9:42 p.m. Saturday, police were called out to the 300 block of Madison Avenue where an 18-year-old subject had been grazed in the head in a shooting.
* At 3 a.m. Sunday, a residence within the 200 block of Cherry Street was shot into. No one was injured, but a neighbor said it was a scary moment as they were startled by hearing five to seven loud gunshots that sounded like they came from a powerful weapon.
The neighbor reported that in speaking with the residents of the home that was shot into that they believed the shooters had gotten the wrong address and shot into the wrong home. Ramirez said, to his knowledge, that was not true.
* At 3:19 a.m. Sunday in the 1400 block of Anderson Boulevard, a 21-year-old female was shot in the leg.
* And at 11:05 p.m. Monday, a male subject sitting in his vehicle along the 600 block of Leflore Street was shot at. There were no injuries reported.
As of Tuesday morning, there had been no arrests in any of the incidents.
Ramirez said the high number of shootings within a relatively short time span is highly unusual.
"It's hard to say with these young guys. You have a lot of them out here that are trying to be active gang members," said Ramirez, who noted that a large percentage of gang shootings in Clarksdale are related to gangs.
He said it appears that most of the recent incidents appear to be drive-by shootings as police are finding a number of shell casings, but no witnesses are reporting seeing someone fleeing on foot.
With Halloween approaching and trick-or-treating hours set for 5 to 8 p.m. in the residential parts of Clarksdale on Wednesday, Ramirez said the police department will follow its usual practice of increasing its number of officers on patrol that night.
Still, he encouraged the public to use caution.
"Be aware of your surroundings. We can't say, 'Try not to be out late at night', but people should be aware of their surroundings," Ramirez said.
